Is tipping on the way out, like smoking?

Sometimes things just change and we accept the new normal. We cease thinking much about the way things were. It's entirely practical of course because we must accept the new reality.
It's interesting how society reacts to pressures for change. Often the voices for change seem muted. There is a fear of stepping on toes. And yet the sentiment for change seeps into our political and legal thickets.
My young adult years were spent in a world where consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes were quite the norm. Society did my generation a "favor," at least for a time, by lowering the drinking age. This happened just as I graduated from high school. Society later put the brakes on its approval of public drinking. Most likely it was MADD leading the way with that or at least setting the tone, or at least discouraging the popular perception of drinking as being amusing. As serious as the penalties now are for DWI, we must wonder if society should give another shot at making alcohol consumption illegal. Mike McFeely has seriously weighed this on WDAY Radio.
It can't happen? Oh, anything can happen. The prohibition on smoking gets ever more intense, going much further than anything I could have envisioned in my middle adult years. Only occasionally would I hear a complaint about cigarette smoke in public. Those complaints never rose to the level where I'd think any real prohibition was coming. There must have been a subtle undercurrent though. It's hard to know how this permeates our political system. Efforts began with designated non-smoking sections (or designated smoking sections, however you want to view it). I remember a St. Cloud newspaper columnist writing about visiting a restaurant that had a non-smoking section but that section happened to be "closed" at the time! With time, this excuse would clearly have been no-go.
But the law seemed unusual at the start, given we had lived so long with the public smoking norm. Hollywood put its imprimatur on smoking. Legend has it that our GIs got free cigarettes in wartime - clever way to get guys hooked. Our beloved WWII generation loved visiting their VFW and Legion clubs on weekends, there to socialize with no small amount of "booze" and cigarettes. It was a cultural norm.
 
Whither the tipping custom?
I write all this as a way of introducing how another significant change in our habits may be coming. Hints indeed are afoot about this. Something is in the air, figuratively though not literally as with cigarette smoke. Could it be that the custom of tipping is approaching its end times?
Complaints about the practice have been sporadic and transitory - Andy Rooney famously vented at one point. Few people would have argued with Mr. Rooney, he of "60 Minutes" fame. Few people would have argued with the complaints lodged about public smoking. But these things take time.
Gee, shouldn't we be considerate of restaurant waitresses and the like, helping their lot in life a little? Restaurant workers perform a necessary service. They should be compensated appropriately, n'est-ce pas? Regular wages should handle that. Many speak of this in terms of a minimum wage. A $15 per hour minimum wage would handle things.
We learn that tipping originated in the feudal economies of the Middle Ages. It might never have taken hold in the U.S. were it not for the Great Depression. And today we face the reality that we're in the minority, worldwide, engaging in the practice. Organized labor in the U.S. - granted, it has been sent on its heels generally speaking - has sought to discourage the custom. Unions at one time sought a ban on it. Outside the U.S., efforts of scaling back the custom were more successful.
In my young adult years I could leave mere coins on the table as a sufficient tip, perhaps as little as a quarter! I remember toward the end of my tenure with the paper, a local businessman (whose name I won't type here) joined me for breakfast at Don's occasionally and would leave a quarter! A throwback or an old habit, and I'm sure he meant well.
I was genuinely chagrined the first time I felt I should leave a whole paper dollar as a tip! Now with breakfast coming to a little over 10 bucks sometimes, I allocate two dollars. Which brings up the problem of having to have the right denominations available all the time. We have probably all had to "break a ten" now and then for no other reason than to get a proper tipping amount. We don't complain about this, just as we weren't inclined in an earlier time to complain about smokers in restaurants. The sentiment eventually nudges the lawmakers.
 
What's the point?
Aren't you annoyed that tipping doesn't really seem to be connected to quality of service? In theory, tipping is supposed to reflect this, so, lousy service might get you to "stiff" the server. But you have probably been places were a gratuity fee is automatically put on your check! Isn't that abhorrent? We had this pulled on us when our churches - First and Faith Lutheran - held our Wednesday night thing at a particular hospitality establishment in town, the name of which I won't type because they wouldn't want me speaking harshly about this. It's a popular place actually.
The irony is that the establishment didn't exactly seem delighted about us being there. They sent us downstairs a lot for no real obvious reason. Apparently the staff didn't want to be troubled with clearing away the desired area upstairs. Nothing was going on there. So, the food would come and then we found we'd have to ask for things like napkins, condiments and silverware. And then after a few weeks we got a real hint about what a hassle we were for them to accommodate, because there was a forced gratuity on our tickets.
I could say "what assholes" but that would be uncivil. That church group is now back to the Met Lounge side room. I don't go partly because I'm ambivalent about religion.
I dine out alone and that makes me feel a little awkward. Those who do this are a minority. Now that I live alone, I find it impractical to engage in meal preparation at home. I try to tip appropriately, probably a little more because I'm a party of one. But I'd rather see the restaurant servers just get paid a good wage. I wonder if the law will eventually come around to this via the minimum wage mechanism. Pass a law and make it clear: no more tipping. Smokers had to adjust to no longer being able to stink up the air in restaurants! We can adjust to a no-tipping norm, I'm sure.
Buffets in restaurants are now covered with a plastic panel so you won't breathe over the food. Could make us all germaphobes. Years ago it became clear you could no longer take a "used" plate back to a buffet line. Oh, but when I was young things were quite different. People kid my generation about "how did you survive, I mean without child safety seats, playing lawn darts etc." Heh heh.
Restaurants probably like the way things are now with tipping. The current norm is about deceiving the customer while also outsourcing labor costs. I think restaurants today have come around to the smoking ban. We are less likely to go into a diner at 3 in the afternoon and see a couple clusters of guys just drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. I used to go in Floyd Schmidgall's old restaurant in Morris (today called DeToy's) and almost feel embarrassed if I was actually there to order a meal! Amazing.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com